Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in 2025-2026, there was a shortfall of $4.2 million. 2026-2027, a shortfall of 4.7. And then going forward, the shortfall would have been just over 5. So what we are looking to do now is adjust the budget to reflect the fact that we now have a contract to -- that makes up that total, that total amount. The total contract costs expected for the coming year -- or sorry, for the -- that is in front of the committee right now is just over $6.9 million for 2025-2026. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2025-2026; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures and Borrowing Authorization), No. 3, 2025-2026; and, 2024-2025 Public Accounts, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the long, creative list that was put there just now. I'll certainly -- I will certainly commit to going back and to ensuring that the folks at NTPC have a look at it and ensure there's nothing in there that I am not familiar with that could be made functional. But, again, Mr. Speaker, at this point there is a significant amount of work in this territory that needs to happen to modernize our grid, to modernize our system, to bring our facilities up to modern standards so that we can better integrate renewables, have more resiliency, have more redundancy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in response to the power outage last night, we will be doing a follow-up to review the outage events. There was a couple of different -- as I already detailed this morning, there's been a couple of different events that led to the extended period of time of the outage, one being that the hydro plant couldn't just have backup diesel relied upon. The backup diesel units didn't start as expected, and then the time that it took to get the hydro back up. So as I said, we'll be doing a follow-up to review that, what took place at all those junctures, whether...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, having access to a diesel generating facility and hydro does create generally a redundancy for the city of Yellowknife. And as such, Yellowknife, in general -- certainly last year, last calendar year -- although we had more frequent outages than other parts of Canada, we actually were well under the average in terms of our restoration time. Obviously last night was certainly an exception to that. And as I just mentioned in my previous response, Mr. Speaker, part of the problem there was because we couldn't get what is the typical backup diesel to be up...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The challenge we find ourselves in is wanting to ensure we do good planning, so the integrated systems planning that's being led across the territory by the public utilities board, the Snare grid modernization which is focused here, and doing that at the same time that there is also a five-year capital plan for Northwest Territories Power Corporation. So we need to keep upgrading the systems immediately. We also do want to be doing this in the context of having a plan. So there is a five-year plan that is rolling out. There are improvements that are taking place every...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Member is implying something other than talking about Taltson, but I can't emphasize enough that not being connected to the North American energy grid, not having our grids connected, leaves us very vulnerable. And so we wind up having outages more frequently when there's only one line that runs to a single generating source -- a single hydro generating source. Typically, we'd be able to bring the diesel back online but if that doesn't happen quickly, we wind up in the situation we found ourselves in yesterday.

So, Mr. Speaker, some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are significant costs that can occur when there's an extended power outage. We certainly see that as I -- you know, certainly to businesses, to residents, but also the government sees those impacts as well, and government services and government buildings. So certainly well aware that they can have significant impacts.

Mr. Speaker, across Canada, public utilities often experience outages and, in fact, as I said earlier, our utility typically -- or is under the Canadian average for the amount of time it takes to get back online. Others typically...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree that for the course of maybe 20, 30 years, there ought to have been integrated systems planning, a Snare resiliency study done, and a connection of our grids. In the absence of that, Mr. Speaker, we are now trying to do all of those things at the same time in the course of this government so that we can deliver on the kind of plan and the kind of intentional plan that this community and the whole of the Northwest Territories needs. We cannot afford as a territory to be behind. It is an issue that I raise frequently with federal counterparts from...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, again, I'll just -- I'll put it back the other direction, that it is helpful when people are getting information out to the public. I would always direct people back to NTPC's Facebook page, if they're on social media that is the first point of call. But everyone that was participating -- and that makes it easier for residents to know where to look, where to find information. So that is helpful that we're all out there.

Mr. Speaker, we ultimately were able to identify that this was an issue at the Jackfish substation. And they were -- the crews that...